Rubix Effect
by DeathMcGunz
Summary: A young man awakes from a life long coma on Eden Prime. A fan of Mass Effect, he knows he's found himself in the wrong universe.
1. Woke Up Older

"It's cold, the table's cold and I'm typing. There's this buzzing, like an air conditioner and people are talking. I don't know what they're saying, but I'm trying to focus, so I put my headphones on. It's fantastic music; I can remember the build up, the crescendo, but not the name.

"I'm typing and it's cold. I close my eyes as the song rises. I see her face, Liara's and…the song ends. I wake up here, the same buzzing but from the heart monitor. It's still cold…that's all I remember."

A small table separates a young man and an aging physician. The physician jots on her notepad and the man makes eye contact with the table.

"That's all you remember before you woke up?"

The young man flicks through his thoughts. Actually, he remembers a lot; A lifetime of information. His parents, his high school years, his college dorm, his first love, there's so much. But the doctor's say that it's just a by-product of the coma. That it's just a way of his brain trying to compensate for lost time.

"That's all I remember," The young man says.

"You 'died' right before you woke up." The doctor says. The man remembers. The heart monitor beeping in the middle of the computer lab was what shook him from his sleep. Dozing off while typing a midterm paper was a common occurrence, but a heart monitor going off like that. Everything changed.

"They say that you shouldn't be alive right now."

_I shouldn't be here, that's for sure_, the man thinks to himself, looking down at the table. He's in a cold room and the doctors tell him he's just awoken from a coma. He's in Harken's First Colonial Hospital on Eden Prime and everything's okay. But it's not.

Eden Prime was a place that used to be fiction. And though the young man had wished to be there on several occasions, it was the kind of wish made in desperate times. When life seemed most bleak and the candle was finally going out. He didn't really mean it.

But there he found himself.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions to test your cognitive ability. Being in a coma for nineteen years is…well, let's just ask the questions." The physician gave a weak smile, the kind that had no hope for the best.

"Do you know the name that was given to you at birth?"

"Noah," the young man said. The woman was startled by his immediacy.

"Very good. It's said that coma patients can sometimes retain knowledge that's spoken around them." Noah knew his name not because someone had spoken it to him while lying in a bed. He knew it because his mother had taught him to say it when he was just a baby. He knew it because people had constantly made references to him and 'his arc' throughout school. He knew it because…it was his name.

"Do you know when your birthday is?"

"January, 25th…"

"And the year?"

"…nineteen years ago."

"You don't know the year, Noah?"

"Listen, Doc, is it…"

"Answer the question, Noah. Do you remember what year you were born?"

"That's what I'm trying to say. This…is a lot to take in."

"I know, Noah. But I'm just trying to make sure your brain is okay. I mean, nineteen years is…its ridiculous, kid. And you're acting like you'd just taken a nap."

"Are you sure I've been in a coma? Here? On Eden Prime?"

"Yes, Noah. You've been here since you were born." The doctor's face tensed into curiosity. "Do you think I'm lying to you, Noah?"

"I don't know, but I'd really like it if you quit saying my name. It's kinda weird."

"I'm sorry," The doctor shook his head, exasperated. "This is just extraordinary. You've never been formally taught the Earth language, yet you're speaking like an educated person. You've never met a doctor before in your life and you accept my role as your care taker. You're not scared, you're not panicking…it's just extraordinary."

"I'm scared, doc." Noah said. "I don't belong here."

"Of course you do."

"No, no, no, no, no. Listen to what I'm about to say," Noah paused for a moment, as if to make sure he wanted to say what he was about to. "I…"

Just then there was a crash. Both Noah and the elder physician turned to look at the shaded window stretching along the wall. The world went quiet for a whole minute before there was another crash, this one closer. Then people began to scream, some just outside the hospital room.

"I'll be right back, Noah." The doctor got up, Noah reaching for him, trying to stop him, and left the room, calling for a nurse.

Noah's heart pealed, layer after layer, dropping the death into his gut. His hands tried to grip onto the bed railing but they only trembled. They were weak, pale, but they were still his hands. The screaming continued outside as a series of crashed, these ones closer, sounded outside the window.

The shockwave of whatever made the crash burst the window and sent glass and dust flying into the hospital. It was then that he realized he wasn't alone. There were at least seven other coma patients evenly spaced throughout the room. None of them looked to be waking up anytime soon. He regarded them for a moment before another crash sent more dust and debris splashing against him.

Noah tried to move, but his muscles wouldn't allow it. For the first time since dozing off in the computer lab, he looked down at his body. He didn't recognize it. The fat was gone, the muscle was gone. He looked like skin and bone, a few veins here and there protruding through the skin.

He had just enough time to mutter a curse before another shockwave crashed through the window. The hospital bed toppled over, slamming him against the floor and crushing him under the heavy plastic frame. He'd never felt so helpless in his life. He screamed as he tried to move his arm to lift him. When that didn't work he tried his wrist and this just a finger.

Nothing moved. Nothing except his neck.

It made no sense to him. He remembered most of the nineteen years he's lived. There was no way he could have been in a coma. But his body was different, it was unlived, his muscles didn't work. For all he knew they were dead and he was stuck on the floor until he joined them.

But the memories. The speech recognition, the role recognition. There was no way he could believe he picked it all up while in a coma. He wasn't a doctor or a scientist, but it seemed impossible. Then again…he was on Eden Prime. Eden-attacked-by-Saren-and-the-Geth-Prime. From that damn video game his roommate was always playing. The one he got Noah hooked on.

That seemed impossible.

"Help!" Noah yelled. "Somebody help me!"

There were people yelling. Down the hallway, outside, everywhere there were people yelling. He didn't recognize a voice, not a sound. Everything felt pseudo, everything felt fake.

"Damn it! Somebody help me!"

But it wasn't fake.

"I can't move! Help me!"

Nothing had ever felt so real to Noah than when he didn't have the strength to pick himself up. He remembered sitting in one of the many computer labs on his college's campus, typing away at some massive midterm paper. The hum of the air conditioner, the cold table top that his arms rested on. He remembered it all and it was real, it was where he had been only thirty minutes ago. But it wasn't as real as the dust and the glass and feeling of helplessness.

He wasn't sure how, but he was on Eden Prime.

And Sovereign was too.


	2. The Pen is Mightier

Rubble rained down, crushing the bed. There were large gaps of silence in between twisting chasms of death and crushed earth. Noah tried to scream, but eventually nothing came out except a little trickle of blood and maybe a wheezing cough.

A sharp tipped object was pressed hard against his spine. He assumed it was a chunk of rubble that stabbed through the bed and into his skin, but he couldn't tell. He couldn't move. But the pain was intense.

It reminded him of the time his handlebars came loose on his bike, sending him face down into the ground. With the inflation of age, he guessed they were still nowhere near the same level of pain. But it was the best he could do. And at that moment he would think of anything to take his mind off of his helplessness.

Then everything went silent.

Noah's breathing became wheezing. The dust settled and the building stopped shaking. The air became thick without the presence of noise and it unsettled Noah. He tried to scream again, but the rubble shifted on top of him. The stabbing sensation stopped, but it fell flat on him, crushing his body under ten times his own weight.

He wanted to die. Later on, when he would lay with Liara under three full moons, he would describe the feeling as death. Like the reaper himself was unhinging its jaw and slowly taking him in whole. It unsettled him, made him want home. Not just Earth, but the desk, with the cool surface and the hum of the air conditioner.

Then there were footsteps.

It took Noah a moment to escape from his own mind, but when he did he heard clunking. It was the sound a transformer made when it stepped down on concrete, except on a much smaller scale. And there were at least three pairs of them.

He heard them walk, clicking and clacking as they went through each room. They flipped things, shot things and dragged bodies out. Noah watched as they walked passed his room to the end of the hall and systematically dragged all the corpses back passed his room and put them God-knows-where.

There were at least thirty corpses that went by before there was a live one. It was a woman and she kicked and screamed the entire way. She yelled about her family and begged for anything but death, but the things dragging here weren't human; they didn't care.

What was worse than that though, was when she turned and saw Noah looking at her as she was dragged by. She yelled for him to help, as if the rubble covering him was just a ruse. She yelled to save here and Noah couldn't even yell back; he didn't want to yell back.

In fact he was filled with dread and fury. Though they would have gotten to his room in a matter of minutes at the pace they were going, in the back of his mind he was hoping they'd gather all the corpses they needed and pass him up. But she alerted them of his presence nonetheless, and they stormed in.

The two of them stood so close that he could only look up at their shins. They seemed to be communicating to themselves, but it was all just beeps and clicks to Noah. He didn't know what they were doing, but they weren't trying to get him up, they weren't even touching him.

The Geth waited for their third comrade to return. They turned and looked at him. His armor was red, he must have been the leader. His inner mechanisms made a few hisses and clicks and they all turned back towards Noah.

He looked up as the red armored Geth stepped forward and un-holstered his side arm. The barrel was inches from his nose. Noah could feel the heat from it. He had just returned from shooting the woman and any number of barely living souls. Noah was filled with a cinderblock of regret. In that moment he wanted the Geth to pull the trigger.

And it did…and things went silent.

There was a cold feeling on his arms, a soft humming…like an air conditioner turned on high. There was heat on his face, and intense heat. His eyes squeezed tight, for a moment he believed he was back in the computer lab. He believed the nightmare was over. But he couldn't feel the rest of his body.

His arms felt cold, his face felt warm, but the rest was still under the rubble, slowly dying. When Noah opened his eyes he saw a bright red light. It encompassed a small, focused red ball of plasma. The ball sat there, barely poking out of the gun, singing the tip of his nose.

The Geth was frozen. It's comrades looked at each other and then down at Noah. They both drew out their guns and pull the trigger. Two loud, hissing blasts erupted from the barrels of their guns, but they never reached Noah.

They exploded against a semi-transparent blue wall as it materialized in front of Noah. The Geth continued to fire, bombarding the shield with welding-hot plasma, with little affect. Then, when they stopped to reload, the shield dropped. Noah closed his eyes and cursed at the God that allowed him to garner false hope.

Then it exploded.

From inside of Noah, a dome of the same blue matter expanded at an exponential speed, pushing back all three Geth and crushing them against the hospital wall. The rubble was caught in the dome's path as well, clearing Noah's back from the weight that had been pushing down on him.

An rushing wave of relief covered Noah's body as the debris was cleared. He tried to let out a yelp of pure ecstasy, but only the wheezing cough came, with the trickle of blood. Even without the roof on his back he was still dying and he still couldn't move.

But he did just kill three Geth, or at least he thought he did. There was little chance that there was anyone left alive in the building, let alone someone who could save him. Then again, he wasn't in any condition to be saving anyone, let alone creating a 'magical' force field of repelling goodness.

There was no other seeable explanation. So Noah closed his eyes and tried again. He felt the cold on his arms and he felt his finger twitch. There was no barrier but his finger moved. So he tried harder, clenching his teeth and threatening to push his brain right out of his skull.

It twitched again and so did others. He clenched his fist and unclenched it. Every movement felt like it was taking something from his mind, like he was spending mental energy on tasks normally done by physical energy. So he pushed harder, feeling the blood well up in his brain, headache coming on, and tried to push himself up off the ground.

With both hands unclenched, palms on the tiles, he pushed. He got as far as a half-push-up before falling back down. But he forced himself to try again, pushing with everything his mind could muster against the ground and trying to bend his knees so as to get them under him for support and flexing his ankles to put his bare feet on the tiles and hacking and wheezing his lungs raw and…

He stood.

The cuts along his feet stung and made footing difficult, but he stood. Arcs of blue light circled around his fingers and down to his wrist, up his forearms and across his chest to reach the rest of his body. They pulsed and traveled the entirety of his body in milliseconds.

A 'magical' circular-vascular system made up of mental energy and pure will power. The thought didn't cross him mind at the time, but looking back he was proud and a little afraid of himself. That kind of power was…it was something. And it let him walk.

Albeit he walked liked Forest Gump without leg braces, but he walked. He walked himself out of the hospital and out into the terror filled landscape of Geth-filled Eden Prime. A "Serene Paradise"…that was about spot on.


	3. Last to Know

**Thank you all for reading/reviewing this story. It kind of surprised me that people caught on. Well hopefully I keep you caught. And if not, then at least I gave it a shot. (Ha, rhymes.) **

The dreams hurt, they were torture. Watching genocide over and over again, played out like a David Fincher flick was a hell of it's own, somewhere near three layers in. It wasn't heat and devils, but alone, helpless and filled with the unkiltered death of a species.

Villages burning, cities collapsed, planets left barren. The flashes of images, corpses turned inside out, burned to the bone, stabbed through with mind controller spikes, they all burned into Noah's brain.

He saw death…in its purest form. As an energy, it surged through his body and teased at a fate that humanity might someday face. It played with his thoughts, told him things that weren't true. Then they faded out and he opened his eyes.

"Doctor, I think he's awake."

"My God, he shouldn't be…" Doctor Chakwas came into Noah's vision. "Can you tell me your name, boy?"

"No…"

"Wha…what do you mean, no? Do you not remember your name?"

"Noah…" Dr. Chakwas let out a squawk of laughter.

"Oh! And here I thought you were having a bought of amnesia. Don't try to sit up, your body can't handle it." Noah looked over at her and tried to say something about the coma, but nothing came out.

"Don't try to talk much either," Chakwas was fumbling around with something at her desk. "Your lungs had collapsed and they're probably a little weak right now. But this…" she walked back over to Noah with a syringe. "this ought to help with that."

The fluid had an instant reaction; relief. Relief from pain, discomfort and the tension welling up in his skull.

"A mild pain killer," Chakwas smiled at Noah. She looked beautiful in her old age. "So, I'm going to warn you now, you're going to be getting a lot of questions. The Spectre found you in very interesting circumstances. Do you remember anything?"

"Hospital…Geth…" A memory of standing up with the help of biotics flashed through his mind, but he didn't mention it.

"Right…well, I'm going to let you rest. Just…be ready to have a better answer than that."

As Chakwas exited the room, Noah tried to call out to her, but he just coughed. The pain was gone, but his lungs were still weak. He felt like he needed a drink of water the size of the Michigan lakes. There was a glass set on the table beside his bed.

He reached for it and his arm actually moved. It lifted from the bed and trembled there. The act felt so draining, but he reached the cup and grasped it. When he lifted it though, his grip was nothing. It slipped and spilt. Noah let out a soft curse.

"Having trouble there?" The voice was intrigued. Noah turned to see an open doorway with a Turian filling its space. He was easily recognizable as the first spectre killed in the Mass Effect Trilogy; Nihlus. He should be dead…

"Are we still on Prime?" Noah asked.

"No, we left some time ago. We're docked at the Citadel." Noah's mind raced. "Tell me…what do you remember?"

"I remember waking up in the hospital…"

"From a coma, yes, and then what?" Noah was surprised and his face must have shown it. "The commander had your file pulled as soon as we were out of orbit. I, of course, looked it over. Now, what do you remember after waking up?"

"I remember crashing and being crushed…"

"Yes, the doctor said that you had sustained severe injuries to your lower extremities. How did you get out of the rubble?"

"I…I'm not sure. I…I just moved it."

"With your mind?" Noah gave Nihlus a look of being under suspicion with a hint of annoyance. "Like I said, I've looked over your file. It has no hint of any biotic mutation or implants…yet…"

"Yet what?" Nihlus smirked at Noah.

"You really don't remember, do you?" Nihlus stepped over to the gurney and laid a datapad on Noah's lap. "Watch this…maybe it will refresh your memory."

The video started and it shocked Noah, frightened him. It showed bodies, heaps of them and Nihlus walking through them. Laser fire began to flicker across the screen and Nihlus drew his weapon, firing upon Geth off screen. Then they came on screen and there were hundreds of them. They surrounded Nihlus, layer several bolts of plasma across his chest plate. His shields dropped and then the video sputtered.

The static buzzed by for a moment and then the video came back, as clear as ever. The Geth were no longer firing their weapons. The Geth were no longer on the ground. Slowly, they lifted from the ground, their bodies going limp. Their guns floated from of their hands and fell to the ground.

Nihlus's arms dropped to his side in amazement as he watched the Geth float high above him, just off screen. A loud sound of grinding and crushing metal blasted through the speakers, causing Noah to jump. Then the twisted hunks of Geth corpse rained down around Nihlus and the video cut out.

"I…"

"You did that, yes." Nihlus picked the pad up. "You…saved my life." Noah let his eyes drift down to his motionless legs.

"How?" Nihlus laughed, practically bellowed at Noah's question.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, young human." Nihlus suddenly looked impressed. "You did something most biotics wouldn't be able to do with year-round training. The doctor scanned you and you do have implants, but like I said, they aren't in your records.

"I would like to accuse you of working with Cerberus, or possibly being the victim of some vicious experiment…but your file also says you have been in a coma since you were born…uh…I…I'm confused, human."

"My name's Noah." Nihlus smirked again.

"Yes…yes it is." The conversation went quiet for several minutes. Nihlus stared straight and Noah while Noah tried to hold eye contact, but felt intimidated. "You're very intriguing, Human. I'm sure you have a lot of questions yourself, but so do I. And, I hate to admit it, but I owe you…my life."

Noah finally found himself able to make eye contact with the Turian. They shared a brief moment of kinship.

"Now, I'm not sure what the Council is going to want to do with you, but I'm on your side…for now."

"Thanks…" Noah said. The fear of times to come entered his mind. The council, the commander, the councilor…all of these things he would have to face, let alone his own past, his own memories and life. The power that he had, that he couldn't remember…

But he pushed it from his mind.

"Listen, Human, there's more to the story than what was on that datapad. I'm sure most of what I've said makes little sense to you right now, but I must warn you. You did more than just save me from the Geth…"

"What? What do you mean?"

"If you don't remember it might be better to leave it that way until the time comes. You're in a very trying space right now, there are a lot of people that are upset and confused about you and what to do about you. Play it safe…like I said, I'll back you up for now."

Noah didn't reply, he just starred down at his legs.

"Just one more question though," Nihlus said, looking over his shoulder as he exited the door. "You can't stand, can you?" Noah looked at his legs and shook his head. Nihlus scoffed.

"This is going to be interesting." He exited the room, door shutting behind him, leaving Noah to drift back into sleep. The nightmares came back…and the pain came with them.


	4. Questions?

**Thank you all, again. If you have any advice or wishes or concerns, I like hearing them even if I don't agree with them. **

"The doctors on Eden Prime kept your body in a brace during most of the time you were in your coma. It seems that whoever paid your bills, parents, guardian, the state, it seems they wanted your body to be ready for physical therapy as soon as you regained consciousness…almost like they knew you were going to wake up.

"It's good news! Great news, actually. Because it made sure that your muscles never shrunk enough to cause any permanent damage to your joints." Doctor Chakwas was pacing back and forth in front of Noah's bed, reading his file with an excited look on her face.

"I know what you're thinking, 'what do we do next?' Well, the answer is quite simple. I'm going to inject you with a few steroids, a few muscle relaxants and then begin you on a vigorous physical therapy routine. Your doctor on the Citadel will be able to get you walking in no time.

"But…you'll never regain full mobility. Your file is amazing already with all the speech and memory exercises, but muscles are not like the brain. They are black and white, dead or alive. And while they aren't dead, you'll never run or walk without a cane.

"I know this must be shocking, but it really is amazing news. You should feel lucky." Doctor Chakwas finally stopped moving, both her mouth and her feet. She looked at Noah as if he was supposed to have a response other than complete blankness.

"You can thank me later, Noah, after Shepard tears you a new one and I sew it up."

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Chakwas laughed. "I think it would be best to not tell you until she's here."

"She?"

"Yes, the commander of this ship is a woman. I thought these issues were resolved long ago. I guess out in the colonies men like to revert back to there…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, stop. I just thought you said…tree." Chakwas shook her head before exiting the medical bay.

"What the fuck have I done?" Noah asked to the ceiling, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. Nihlus was alive. That was the one thing that kept popping up in his mind. Nihlus should be dead…killed by Saren. If he's not dead, does the crew of the Normandy know about Saren?

Noah certainly couldn't tell them. They'd want proof and all sorts of other things that Noah just couldn't give. He didn't even remember how he found Nihlus or how he made it onto the Normandy. He just remembered the hospital and the dreams…the damn genocidal dreams.

And Shepard was a chick. Somewhere below his belt he wished that she was hot, but from what he's been told, by Nihlus and Chakwas, she seemed like she was a hard ass. The kind of Shepard that wasn't racist, but disliked everyone and made sure everyone knew it. It seemed like she was the kind of Shepard that Noah always hated to see played.

"I wanna go home…" Noah pleaded with the ceiling.

"Eden Prime's no place you want to be now, kid." The voice was familiar. It was Jennifer Hale, or, Noah supposed, Jane Shepard. "Unless that's not home to you, Mr. Idris." Noah froze, mainly from fear.

"Do you have any idea what you've done from the time you awoke from your 'coma' to the time you awoke on my ship?"

"I…I…I woke up…"

"Yeah, skip that part. I've got that much of the story down pat. I just want to make sure we're on the same page."

"After that I…I…"

"Stop stuttering and speak up, Noah. What the hell were you doing on Eden Prime?"

"Please!" Noah yelled. The words seemed to scrape against his lungs. "Just please stop yelling at me. You are…very intimidating and it's making it very hard to think." Shepard gave a small laugh.

"But you don't need to think, do you?" She leaned in close to his face. "You don't remember a damn thing, do you?"

Noah shook his head and put his gaze on his legs.

"God damn it, kid. You really fucked up my mission and everyone's telling me that you won't remember a damn thing, but I don't believe it." There was fury in her eyes, confusion, and pain. "Now tell me the truth or I will dump you off of this ship if Batarian space with a sign that says 'Bounty'."

Noah tried to gather his thoughts. The truth. He pondered the thought. In his own mind he wasn't sure what 'the truth' was. But then again, Shepard wasn't giving him much of a chance to figure it out. The only thing he could do is speak and hope that this Shepard wasn't as evil as she seemed. She never was, right?

"Okay, I…I can tell you everything that I know. Just, give me a moment."

"I lost a crew member for the artifact on Prime and because of you we lost that artifact. So I don't have the patience, or the will to give you anything more than one more chance to tell me what you know."

"Okay, okay, okay! I was writing a term paper and I dozed off listening to this song and when I woke up I was in a hospital bed and the doctors were telling me that I had been in a coma for my entire life, nineteen years, and that I wouldn't be able to talk or walk but when I did talk and knew stuff they said that it was extraordinary, but I still couldn't walk, so then there were crashes and explosions and the building started collapsing and it did collapse, right on top of me and I was lying there dying and these Geth started taking bodies and they came for me but when they saw I was stuck they were going to kill me, so the Geth pulled the trigger but it didn't kill me, I stopped it with my mind or something and then I crushed them with this barrier which also pushed the debris from my back and freed me, but I still couldn't walk because I had been in a coma and my muscles were dead or something, so I was stuck on the ground, but I tried anyways, I tried to get up and when I did this weird blue aura stuff, like the stuff that killed the Geth, wrapped around me and supported my body and let me walk and then I started having these nightmares and then I woke up here…"

Noah breathed in for the first time since he started speaking. Shepard was looking straight into his eyes. Down below his belt he thought she was hot.

"So you're only nineteen?" Noah gave her a questioning look. She smirked before returning to her stern expression. "It was a joke…to see if you were lying. Your story sounds…completely ridiculous, but you look terrified out of your mind.

I don't care how hard this is for you, that's not my job. Is to make sure you're not a danger to my crew, working for the Geth, something stupid like that. And I have a lot of questions that you are going to answer before I decide your fate. Do you understand me, kid?"

Noah nodded his head.

"First of all, what did you mean by 'writing a term paper'? You were in a coma."

"I don't know. I…it must have been one of those coma-dreams or something."

"Yeah, maybe, but you don't believe that. Don't lie to me."

"I don't know what to believe, okay? I'm confused. If I was in a coma for nineteen years, then my mind has made a life for me inside of my own mind, letting me live every day like I wasn't lying in a hospital bed. I don't know what to believe!"

"Okay," Shepard's eyes went soft for a moment. "I don't know what to think about that. So let's move to the next question. So these crashes and explosions, that was the Geth attack, correct?" Noah nodded his head. "Did you see the ship? Did the Geth say anything, or did you hear anything?"

"Nuh, nuh, no. I…the building just collapsed. I didn't see anything."

"Okay. Doctor Chakwas report says that you have biotic implants, but that they weren't on your original medical report. I can't expect you to know why, but I have to ask."

"No, I don't know a thing."

"That's for damn sure. But your biotic powers…Nihlus said that you were able to…"

"Yeah…I saw the video."

"Those weren't normal powers, or at least they were nothing like anyone has reported. If what you and Nihlus say is correct, then I can't technically hold you responsible for what you did on Eden Prime. But you have to understand, that this story is hard for anyone to believe.

"You just happen to not remember? You were in a coma and just were able to do these unheard of things when you woke up? You just happened to wake up on the day the Geth attacked? That's a lot of coincidences…but you were in a coma."

"I'm sorry."

"Oh shut it." Shepard shook her head, half smiling. "Kid, this was just the wrong time for you to show up. And I don't know what to do with you."

"If…if it means anything to you, ma'am, I want the answers to those questions as much as Nihlus, as much as you."

"I'm not sure if that will mean anything to the council when I try to explain what happened. But yeah, it means at least a little to me, kid." Shepard patted Noah on the shoulder and headed for the door.

"Uh, Shepard, ma'am?"

"Yeah, Mr. Idris?"

"What did I do…to mess up the mission?" First she smiled, but then her face contorted to a frown.

"Well kid…you were unconscious, Nihlus had you and we were waiting for extraction." Shepard looked down at the ground before continuing. "He placed you down by the railing and the next thing I see, is you walking towards the beacon. When you got close enough it lifted you into the air, held you there for a moment and then exploded. A soldier of mind was killed by the shrapnel."

"What was his name, Ma'am?" Noah wasn't sure what to think.

"Alenko, Kaidan Alenko."


	5. No One Asks

**After re-reading this, I realized I didn't like how it turned out. So I went back and fine-tuned it. Thanks for reading, all of you. I take all of your requests and advice seriously before writing each chapter. **

"Relay to us again, what happened on Eden Prime?" The Turian council member was starting to get on Noah's nerves. Ashley was holding the wheel chair he'd been carried in on, firm and steady. She didn't look too pleased to be given that role, but Noah didn't care much for it either.

Noah told them again what he had told Shepard just an hour ago. It was the third time he had told his short, unhelpful tale and each time the Council looked less and less convinced. The Asari was the only one who seemed to be on their side.

"And then I woke up on Shepard's ship. That's all I remember." The room absorbed the story. The whole room except for the Turian, of course.

"But that isn't the whole story, is it Nihlus?" The Turian's smug-ass voice became evident when he brought up Nihlus. The look on his face was that of an upper-class man when he spoke down to a freshman. There seemed to be something between them, like an old grudge.

"Are you holding back evidence, Nihlus?" The Asari sounded curious. Nihlus looked at Noah, as if to ask if it was okay to show the tape. Noah wasn't sure how to reply.

"The Human is not lying. That is all he remembers, I'd stake my life on it. But there is more to it. He saved my life…after he escaped the hospital."

"How do you mean, Spectre?" Nihlus regarded the Asari with a nod before tapping on his datapad. The video that Noah had seen before, was projected for the entire room to see. Noah couldn't watch it again, so he put his head down and waited for it to end. When it did, the room went quiet.

"That human from the video is the same human in that wheel chair?" The Salarian spoke up. He pointed to Noah, while looking unbelievingly at Nihlus.

"Yes, Nihlus, the video never actually showed the boy you brought before us." The Asari's eyes floated to Noah's.

"I'm sorry, but this seems like a ruse." The Turian folded his arms across his chest. "You lost the beacon and your excuse is this child? Laughable. You should be decommissioned for even thinking it."

"This wasn't Nihlus's fault. It was my mission, my team, my screw up." Shepard sounded as irritated as Noah felt. She stepped forward, as if to challenge the Council physically as well as mentally.

"That's not necessary, Shepard. It was my mission…"

"What are you two doing?" Udina cut off Anderson. Then he turned and, using a hushed voice said. "Council, I apologize…"

"Silence!" The Turian's voice demanded respect. "Nihlus, we want to speak to you in private. This meeting has obviously gotten too crowded." Shepard looked to Anderson, who looked to Udina, who starred with unbridled rage at the Council as he turned and exited.

"Anderson!" Udina yelled after him.

"Come on, Shepard." They both exited. Ashley wheeled Noah after them, cursing under her breath about how she should have stayed on Eden Prime. Noah agreed entirely. There was nothing in any world that he wanted more than to have died there under the rubble.

Everything was so fucked. Noah never cared much for Kaidan, but now that he was real…no, now that Noah had caused his death…the image wouldn't leave his mind. The dialog wheel sitting there, two choices available but one of them is blacked out. "[Kill Kaidan]" is bright red, renegade, a bad choice.

Nihlus should be dead, but he wasn't. Noah saved him without even remembering it or feeling it. Most people would feel good about saving a life, but another life was taken in its place. Noah just wanted to remember.

_Why can't I remember? _Noah screamed in his head.

A headache came ripping across his skull. He clutched at his head and doubled over in his wheelchair. Ashley stopped pushing to grab his shoulders, just barely keeping him from falling. She called out for Shepard.

"Can't keep the cripple in his chair, Williams?" Shepard didn't sound pleasant. She was trying to keep up with Udina and Anderson, but they were practically rushing to get away.

"Yes, ma'am. Sorry." Ashley started pushing the chair again. The pain left Noah with a disorientating feeling. The visions came crashing down on top of him. "What is wrong with you, kid? Get it together. Geeze."

"It's not my fault." He forced the words around the stabbing sensation he felt in his mind.

"Well it sure as hell ain't mine, either." She had a point, a point that made Noah feel a little bad for her. When they reached the elevator Ashley let Noah take over and she took a spot next to Shepard.

"God damn it, Anderson." Udina bellowed. "What were you thinking bringing all of these people to the meeting? Shepard would have sufficed."

"I didn't have much of a choice. Shepard's story would have been hard to believe without the boy, and Nihlus was…"

"Well now look? Our credit with the Council is practically non-existent and I still don't understand why this boy is even here!" Udina gave both Noah and Anderson a wicked look. "Can somebody explain?"

"I would think that was obvious by now," Shepard said.

"Anderson! Keep your crew under control."

"She's right, Ambassador," Anderson's voice sounded giddy. "No matter how brash she is, she's right. The boy was brought as evidence, because you know that they were going to ask for a testimonial."

"Well it's all screwed now." Udina rubbed his forehead hard and paced in front of the small gathering of Humans. "Listen, Anderson, the Geth attack was a big enough surprise, let alone this boy who doesn't really know anything. Yet Shepard thinks he's important."

"I stand by Shepard's word, Ambassador." As if to show he meant it, Anderson stepped closer to Shepard.

"So does Nihlus," Shepard added.

"Well then, you're lucky, boy," Udina looked fast at Noah. "Because if it were up to me, you'd be back on Eden Prime."

"Ambassador!"

"Well, he's useless. If he remembered a damn thing then maybe the Council would take us back and we could not look like such fools."

"I didn't ask for this…" Noah said. Everyone looked at him, not even sure if they heard him right.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I didn't ask for this." He met eyes with Udina. "Now I want to know what happened as much as all of you, but I didn't ask to be brought here…" Noah stopped himself for a moment. He wanted to say 'brought here to this universe' but he knew that wouldn't fly. "Brought here to the Citadel.

"I would have much rather died there on Eden Prime." After that, Noah took hold of the chairs wheels and rolled back towards the council until he reached the first stack of stairs. He put his head in his hands and suddenly felt like crying. He tried his best but the need was too strong. One broke free and rolled down his cheek. He wiped it clear and sniffed the snot back into his nose. That's when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," It was Shepard. Noah tried to turn to face her, but he wasn't quite used to the wheel chair, so he looked more like a beached whale trying to role over. Shepard chuckled and, to make it easier for him, circled around to face him.

"You know, Alenko didn't ask to be there either." She didn't look angry, she looked upset, like she was having a bout of nostalgia. "He was a high-spirited kinda guy, he volunteered for the mission. But you know what I mean. None of us asked to be here, Noah. Now I know you're getting tired of hearing how much of an inconvenience you've been, but we need you right now."

"Need me? Why? How?"

"They need you to come up with an explanation for your actions. To make what happened 'right', or 'justified'." Noah frowned. "But what they need isn't important. What I need…what you need, is to _remember_ what happened." Shepard's eye brows rose as she spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you've seen the tapes, you've heard what happened, now you just have to _remember_."

"But I…" Noah stammered, trying to understand what Shepard was getting at.

"Yes, you do. You know what happened because Nihlus and I have told you…so just 'remember' that it happened."

"Why? Why should I do that?"

"Because, if you don't, then I'm going to have to leave you here." Noah recoiled, though he wasn't expecting to. "If you're on my ship you can guarantee that I'll do what it takes to find out what the beacon did, why it explo…"

"Visions…" Noah cut her off. The visions slashed across his brain again." I didn't get the connection at first, but the beacon…it's given me these horrible nightmares, these visions. I think…" Noah chose his words carefully. "I think that's what the beacon was meant to do." Shepard stood and gave Noah a questioning look.

"I'm not sure what to think about that," She regarded Noah with intrigued eyes. "But will you do it?"

"I'll do it," Noah said. "I'll 'remember' what happened."

"Then there will be a spot on my ship when you're done, at least for now." She grew stern, quickly. "But if I find out that you're just screwing me around, you'll be in and out of the airlock in seconds. Do you hear me?"

Noah nodded.

"I said, do you hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am." Noah's voice shook, which brought a tiny smile to the Commander's face. She got rid of it as she walked around to the back of Noah's chair and steered him over to the group. Udina and Anderson were arguing off near one of the bone-like trees and Ashley was standing, hands on her hips.

"What's their deal, Williams?"

"I don't know, Commander. Old, bald and douchey was getting on the Captain's case about something or other. What are we gonna do, ma'am?"

"We're going to wait for orders, until then…"

"Nihlus…" Noah said. The three of them turned and saw the Turian sulking towards them. He looked like a dog who was just caught chewing on a sock that wasn't his.

"Hey," Shepard called out. "Hey! Nihlus!" He didn't even pretend to not hear her. In fact he looked her dead in the eyes as he stepped in the elevator.

"Noah, go talk to him." Noah looked up at Shepard. "That's an order. Go, quick, before you have to take the stairs."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Noah said as he rolled after Nihlus. He heard Ashley and Shepard share a laugh at his expense, but he didn't mind. It was pretty funny after all. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to him, but something in his gut told him that he should go talk to him.

The feeling gave Noah the sense that NIhlus and him were friends, or had been friends. Maybe it was because Noah knew him from the games, or it was because he saved him from death by Saren's hands. Either way, he felt a connection to Nihlus. The thought of Saren scared Noah, so he pushed it away.

Nihlus looked reluctant to have a guest on the elevator, but after a few minutes of silence he finally spoke up, clearing his throat with a mock cough.

"They fired me." His voice was weak. Noah didn't like it.

"What?"

"Well, I suppose they didn't technically fire me. They revoked my privileges, grounded me."

"So you're not a Spectre?"

"Well, legally, I am. But you get the point. They made me useless."

"My fault, I presume?"

"Well…yeah. I suppose." Noah shook his head. Shepard was right; he was getting tired of hearing that. "But you saved my life. That's got to count for something."

"No, no it doesn't." They were silent again, letting the elevator grind to a slow stop. The doors opened up and Nihlus started walking. Noah tried to keep up, but being in a wheelchair was new, odd.

"I'm going to Chora's Den, kid. I don't think they'll let a minor in."

"I'm not a minor, and hey, you'd be surprised at what a dude in a wheel chair can get away with."

Nihlus grunted a response and kept walking. He wasn't in the mood for talking.

"I'm sorry, Nihlus." He kept walking, pretending not to hear. "Nihlus, stop! I said I'm sorry."

"That's not going to fix anything, kid." That got him to stop. He turned to face Noah, with a masked look of hurt on his face.

"Well I will. I'm going to tell them what happened and I'm going to make this right, okay?"

Nihlus starred at him, shook his head and walked away. Noah felt hurt. He wasn't sure why, but it was the kind of hurt one feels when a friend says something nasty. He felt responsible for Nihlus, for keeping him alive. But he didn't bother going after him. He just wheeled around and got back in the elevator. The ride was slow, boring, but it gave Noah time to think. Or at least he wanted to think. Nothing came to his mind though, just regret.

When the doors opened, Udina and Anderson pushed passed him, still arguing. The doors closed behind him, blocking them from sight, but it took a while for the argument to fade away as the elevator descended. That left only Ashley and him. Shepard was gone, most likely in front of the Council being questioned.

Ashley was standing, arms still on her hips, not looking too pleased to see the boy in the wheelchair. Noah wasn't sure what to say, so he just admired, for the first time since he'd awoken, he just sat and reveled in the sight of what was once fiction. Ashley Williams, in the flesh, not pixelated, not even in high definition; just real.

She looked tough, but still feminine. Noah never found her attractive when he played the game, but in that small window of time where he was free from persecution and anger, he rethought his position. She was alright, maybe even more so than that.

The admiration stopped when Ashley put her finger to her ear, listening intently to a voice buzzing through her comm. It was a quick message and after it ended she turned to Noah, looked him up and down, sneered and told him that Shepard needed him up with the Council.

"I could use a little help." Noah said, feeling bad for asking.

"You're…"

"I…I get it, okay?" Noah pleaded to Ashley. "I'm a bother, a problem, a…"

"I was gonna say 'lucky that I'm in a good mood', but those work as well."

"Yeah well…" Noah motioned towards the top of the Presidium. Ashley sighed and gave him a hand. When they got to the top, the Turian was at Shepard's throat, metaphorically of course.

"Shepard, if there's no new evidence…"

"Here it is. He is, I mean. Here he is." Shepard said as Noah was pushed in. He thanked Ashley and she gave him a sarcastic "you're welcome" as she left. "As we were forced out of here, something hit him, he doubled over in his wheel chair from a headache. But it wasn't a normal headache. I think it has to do with the beacon."

"What are you saying, Shepard?" The Salarian asked.

"Yes, Shepard. Enlighten us." The Turian looked pleased, as if, with one more word he could have Shepard condemned just like Nihlus.

"The beacon seemed to mess with his mind, his memories." Shepard began. "And it gave him visions…"

"If this is true, then let the boy speak for himself." The Asari spoke now. It seemed the ordeal on Eden Prime was finally starting to wear her thin. Shepard stepped aside and nodded for Noah to take over.

"The beacon gave me visions, your highnesses-es." Noah felt like a bumbling idiot. The council looked at each other questioningly before passing it off as a slip of the tongue.

"But more importantly, I'm beginning to remember what happened. It's coming back to me." The council shared another look before nodding for him to continue. "Now, I don't know why, but when I was under that rubble, my biotic implants…they just kicked in. They saved my life and they killed those Geth.

"I was in a coma, so they…guided me, that's it. They carried me until I ran into Nihlus…and they saved him too. Then I must have passed out."

"That sounds preposterous! Biotics controlling a human?" The Turian shouted. "Now I don't know about my fellow Council members, but this is starting to…"

"No," The Salarian interrupted. "What the Human said isn't that farfetched. There are no official studies, due to ethics and such, but biotic abilities are said to sometimes develop and communicate with the subconscious part of Human brains. I've seen it happen in Salarians and Turians too." The Turian nodded, and accepted the rebuttal.

"Please continue, Noah." The Asari sounded kind again, more relaxed.

"Now Nihlus said he carried me to the rendezvous with the Commander. But the next thing I remember is the beacon…calling to me." All of a sudden, it was starting to come back to Noah. He was seeing through his own eyes, back on Prime." It was asking me to touch it, to come closer and lay my palm across it. I…I'm not sure if I was controlling my own body…but the biotics carried me to it and I touched it…

"That's when it blew up. My biotics shielded me, but Alenko wasn't as lucky…" Noah felt the burden of tears again, but held them back. "His death is my fault, as is the destruction of the beacon. Nihlus and Commander Shepard had nothing to do with it. You saw the video…you saw what I was capable of…they couldn't have stopped me."

The Council (and the rest of the room) was silent as they took in the information. The Council seemed to have an entire discussion through stares and twitches of the eyes. When they turned their attention back to Noah, the Asari spoke.

"Tell us about these visions, Noah."

Noah told them. He spoke of the death and genocide. He told them of the Protheans and all the fire. The cities burning, worlds crumbling. He told them of the confusion in them, how they didn't make much sense. He told them of the Reapers.

"Reapers?" The Council shared one of their looks. "The beacon showed you all of this?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Noah, for clearing this up. But now you must let us discuss this in private. We'll call you back when we've made a…decision."

Noah nodded, as did Shepard. She led Noah back down by the elevator before stopping and slapping him hard on the back.

"You did good, kid."

"Yeah," Noah didn't feel good though. Remembering the beacon, how it called to him. He had been awake…he should have stopped himself.

"Shepard!" It was Anderson. "We just got word that Nihlus was gunned down outside of Chora's Den. C-Sec are on their way to tell the Council."

"Do they know who did it?" Shepard's voice sounded urgent.

"No, not officially. But I'm sure it has something to do with Fist. He owns that area and a lot of the lower wards. Now, I know this is shocking, but what did the Council say…"

"It looks like we need to go talk to Fist."

"Now wait right there, Shepard, what did the…"

"I'm going with you," Noah said, looking up at Shepard.

"Wait, the both of you." Anderson blocked their path. "You can't go hunting down some random criminal in the middle of the Citadel. Now tell me, what'd the Council say?"

"They put us on hold, Captain. They'll call us back in when they're done discussing. Now I'm sorry, but the beacon and Nihlus's murder can't just a be a coincidence. So I'm going to go find Fist." Anderson thought that over.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with you. As much as random attacks happen down in the wards, I don't think anyone would just start a fight with a Spectre." Anderson rubbed his head. "Now, it'd be best if you found some evidence instead of just killing whoever you talk to. I know how you operate. But the Council operates differently. They need proof."

"Aye, sir."

"I mean it, Shepard," Anderson stopped her again. "That's an order. We haven't brought up your recommendation for Spectre status because of…" He looked at Noah. "…circumstances, but that doesn't mean it's off the table. If you keep this clean and get some information, it'll help you further down the road.

"She said 'Aye, sir", sir." Noah said.

"Why do I get the feeling that having you two together isn't a good idea?"

"Maybe it's the sparkle in my smile, or the shine on his wheels." Shepard motioned to the wheel chair and gave an obnoxiously fake smile. Anderson shook his head, not being able to stop himself from smiling.

"Just be careful, Shepard."

She nodded and started walking. Noah rolled after her.


	6. Hot Wheels

**Thanks to all of you. This one's just in time for the release of Mass Effect 3. Who's all getting it at midnight?**

"Listen, ma'am. Fist doesn't just let anyone go back and see him." The guard by the door wasn't a Krogan like Noah had assumed. It was a human, and a prime example of the word 'arrogant'. "Now, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm Fist's head guard here. I call the shots. Now scram."

Shepard didn't retort, she just turned and walked back into Chora's Den. Noah followed, learning with every bump or so that the Citadel wasn't handicapable. So many stairs, so few ramps. Noah never thought he'd miss walking, but at that moment he was really contemplating it.

"We need to find someone to shake down." Shepard was scanning the bar, looking for anyone who even looked nervous. Noah knew who they needed to find. He'd interrogated the man several times before, using various different looking Shepards. But he didn't quite know how to tell the Shepard in front of him.

'Oh hey, I've done this before, let's just go talk to the drunk over in the corner'. That didn't go over well in his mind. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he actually said it. Shepard would probably lift him straight out of his wheel chair and tell him that she'd had enough of his presence.

But then it came to him; in a stroke of genius some might say. His visions, the ones that plagued any moment that he closed his eyes, who was to say that they stopped there. Maybe, just maybe, they showed him the future, or gave him some kind of intuition. It was risky business, but in the back of his mind, Noah wanted any reason to not be just a nuisance.

"Shepard," he said, closing his eyes and grabbing his head. He tried to remember the pain it hurt when he actually got a vision. More importantly, he tried to not look like an actor. "Shepard…I…"

"Kid? Are you okay?" She placed a hand on his shoulder. He felt a little bad for playing her like he was, but he knew it was for the best. And at least it would help her. Trade a little bad for a little good; it sounded good in his head.

He let go of his head, and blinked a couple of times. He kept telling himself to look like he saw a ghost, but he'd never seen one before so…

"Hey, kid, are you okay? You look like you'd just seen a naked Asari asking for a moment of your time." Naked Asari; close enough. "Am I missing something over there?" Shepard followed Noah's eyes in a mocking way before giving him a slap on the back. She sure loved to slap.

"I…I just saw something."

"Was it naked? If not, then really, we've got other things to tend to."

"No…it was…" Noah searched the crowd, catching the glint off of Harkin's balding head. "Him…I saw him." Shepard turned and looked at the old Alliance soldier. "His name's Harkins…I don't know…I think he knows something."

"A vision?" Noah nodded. "The Prothean beacon, the one that gave you visions of genocide, is now telling you that an old man in an Alliance uniform has information to help us?" Noah suddenly felt really stupid, and caught, busted, shit out of luck.

A lot came crashing down on him at once. What would happen if someone found out he wasn't from this world? Would he be committed? Killed? Would he go back? Not that he thought that was a bad thing…or did he? The thought clenched at his chest and made his stomach twist up like a twisty-tie.

What was he going to do? Why wasn't he trying to get home? Why hadn't he panicked before? What if he liked where he was? That thought cleared his mind for a moment, giving him a few sparse seconds of clear, existential thinking.

He'd almost died…he'd crushed robots with his mind, saved an aliens life, been given visions that he'd only seen flashes of on a videogame, argued with an all-powerful Council, been on the SSV Normandy, been pushed around in a wheel chair by Ashley Williams…and all in just a few days.

Noah had lived more in those few days than he could remember living his entire nineteen years. So even if he wanted to go home, even if he would give nothing more than to walk normally again, he felt like he wanted to stay. He needed to stay.

"What do ya know, Harkins actually knew something." Shepard pulled a chair up next to Noah and sat down. In his epiphany of clear thought, Noah had apparently lost track of time. "He said I should have a chat with a C-Sec officer named Garrus. Your little dreams tell you anything about him?"

"Yeah…" Noah thought it over. "He's a bro."

"A what?"

"A good ally."

"Right," Shepard stood up. "You're a weird one, you prophet on wheels."

"I like the sound of that."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it." Shepard and Noah headed out of Chora's Den and towards a rapid transit. "Cause I'll never call you that again."

"No problem." When the transit arrived, the driver informed them that wheelchairs would not fit and that Noah would have to stay behind.

"Are you kidding me?"

"I…I'm sorry ma'am, but…I don't really make the cabs, I just drive them."

"Well, shit." Shepard turned to Noah. "Listen, I need you to wheel your ass over to C-Sec and wait for me. I'll head over to the medical district and chat with this Turian. If anyone gives you crap, well…you're in a wheel chair, tell em to lay off."

"Shepard…"

"That's an order." She stepped in the futuristic taxicab and it flew off. Noah was getting a little sick of her using that whole 'that's an order' crap to get her way. Sure, it was the way of the military, but Noah wasn't in the military. He supposed he didn't have much to complain about, but c'est la vie. Such is life.

"Did you bring it?" Noah heard a sharp voice.

"Where's the Shadow Broker?" Another voice, this one familiar. "Where's Fist?" Noah turned his wheel chair in the direction of the voices and started rolling.

"They'll be here," Noah was getting closer. "Where's the evidence?"

"No way," It was Tali. Noah was sure of it. He'd heard the conversation a thousand times before. "The deal's off."

Noah felt a sudden elation. Tali vas Normandy, or whatever ship she was from before Shepard claimed her as one of his (or, in this case her) own, was just up ahead. The name brought a smile to his face. The masked alien with a very interesting accent.

Then the elation turned to flammable gas and something sparked. Tali was about to be assassinated by one of the Shadow Broker's men…and Shepard wasn't there to save her. But he was…the prophet on wheels.

He pushed himself to go faster, but he couldn't help but question why Tali was being ambushed then, of all times. Shepard hadn't fought Fist yet; he hadn't even found Garrus, or Wrex. The timeline was all screwy, all chopped up and it was about one hundred percent his fault.

The bangs went off; Tali's smoke grenades, or flash bombs, whatever they were. The attack was happening and Noah was almost there. He just had to push a little further a little harder and…

His arms felt weak, like they were going numb. Chakwas remedy in a needle tip was wearing thin. Noah had only a little faith in modern medicine back where he was from. But futuristic medicine? From a fictional world? He felt stupid for even thinking his arms would last without real therapy.

"Hold it right there, Quarian." Noah reached the top of the ramp and saw Tali, hiding behind a crate, the two goons and the Turian closing in on her. "Had over the evidence and we won't waste you."

"Wait!" Noah yelled, not sure what he was going to say next. He let his mouth go before his brain had a plan, but he couldn't let it show. "I've called C-Sec…they're on their way."

"Ha!" The Turian laughed. "Like they'll be able to do anything. Why don't you scram kid, before I waste you too." Noah couldn't be sure, but he felt Tali's eyes on him, on his legs, on his chair. Noah raised his arm, ignoring the pain his muscles were screaming at his brain.

"No…no you won't." He closed his eyes and tried to push his brain out of his head, like he did on Eden Prime. He tried to crush the three criminals like he did the Geth in the hospital…he tried to bring on the power that took control of him before.

"What's this kid? Some kind of biotic?" The Turian laughed, but Noah felt it in his brain, like a raging river being held back by a damn. He felt the aura, the blue energy, as it wrapped around his arm.

Then the Turian fired his gun several times. The goons followed suite and after a few seconds of laser fire pelting his skin, Noah dropped out of his chair and everything went black.


	7. Just a Bridging Chapter

Noah woke up in a torrential outburst of biotic power. He shot up from the medical table, his arms outstretched, muscles tensing like he'd been lifting weights all day, and anything not bolted to the ground flew up against the wall opposite of him. A few tables, scalpels, automated surgeon arms; they all smashed against the wall and went static until his armed dropped.

He breathed like he'd been under water for a few minutes and dying for oxygen. There was sweat and flashes from the visions and a scream ringing in his ears. He remembered the Turian and his goons, how they shot him…they shot him a lot. He remembered at least five bolts hitting him before he fell. They all burned white hot somewhere deep below his skin.

"Noah!" He could barely hear it over the scream in his ears. "Noah!" Then he realized, the scream he was hearing, the one filling his mind, was coming from his own mouth. It stopped after that and everything seemed to fall into focus.

"Noah!" It was Shepard. She had her hand on his shoulder, she was shaking him. "Noah…it's okay. You're on the Normandy." His breathing returned to normal and he looked Shepard in the eyes. She looked frightened, terrified, like a mother who had just received word that her son had been taken by the war.

"Noah, kid, It's okay." Noah's eyes were watering. The visions were thick in his mind. He kept seeing bodies melting, over and over again. And the room, the med-bay, it looked like a war-zone because of him. But what was most frightening of all was Shepard. Not once had Noah ever seen any Shepard look as helpless as she did then.

Noah fell against her and she wrapped her arms around him.

"It's okay," She kept saying. "You're gonna be okay." And, for a moment, even with the visions banging away at his mind, he believed her. Noah always remembered that moment and he would go back to it anytime he was afraid and it made him feel safe again.

"Kid," Shepard said, pulling Noah's teary face back. She studied him for a moment before smiling. "Soldiers don't cry." They shared a laugh, the kind that comes just after you think the monster is gone and the movie is over.

"I'm sorr…"

"Don't say it," She interjected. "There's nothing that you should be sorry for, except for scarring the living shit out of me. You saved that Quarian's life."

"Tali?" Shepard questioned Noah with her eyes. "I…I must have overheard it before…"

"That assassin shot the shit out of you? Yeah…what the hell were you thinking, kid?" She laughed again.

"I don't…I guess I thought I could use my biotics." Shepard laughed again.

"Well you sure as hell used them on Chakwas desk." Noah looked at the twisted hunk of steel that used to be a desk. It twisted his heart a little. "She's not going to be too happy about that, but she'll live.

"She's probably sick of seeing you though. You might want to avoid dying for a while." Shepard slapped him on the back as she stood up. "You took one hell of a beating, so get some rest. We'll be in the Artemis Tau cluster in thirteen hours or so."

"Artemis Tau?" Liara's face flashed across his mind, like it did before he woke up on Eden Prime.

"Yeah," Shepard turned back and took her seat again. "I almost forgot to mention. Talked to Garrus…"

Shepard told the tale that Noah had played through many times before. There were no twists or turns, no one was missing and no one died. Nihlus had been killed, Noah found Tali, Shepard brought Wrex and Garrus on the ship…everything happened like it had happened in the game. Except for Kaidan. Just thinking the name made Noah's heart clench. It was an anomaly and anomalies irked Noah like no other. Especially anomalies that were his fault and caused lives to be lost.

"After the Council handed over the keys to Spectre status, we got the location of Benezia's daughter and we're headed to find out if she's on our side, and if not…if we can barter with her." Noah hoped that Liara would still be the same. As sad as it was, she was the first woman Noah had ever fallen for. He wanted to meet her face to face, in the flesh, even if it was blue flesh.

"Depending on what we get from her, we'll either head to Noveria to stop Benezia, or Feros to deal with the Geth…" Shepard's thought seemed to trail off, like a car motor as it sped off into the distance.

"How do decide stuff like that?" Shepard looked up at Noah but didn't meet his eyes.

"It's what a leader has to do, kid. You make decisions and you always make the right ones, no matter what happens. Doubt makes for a bad leader." Shepard and Noah went silent on the topic and Shepard rose to leave again.

"Uh, Commander?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"You think I could join you when we get to the Artemis Tau cluster?" Shepard didn't even need a second before she responded.

"No," She headed for the door and Noah was so blind-sided he didn't stop her. When she left, Noah felt his heart sink slowly, a broken ship taking on water. Liara T'soni being real; the thought flabbergasted him to the point where he forgot that he wouldn't be able to navigate the destroyed dig site in a wheel chair, let alone combat the Geth that would be present.

He felt the urge to drum up another fake vision to warn Shepard, but she never needed warning in his play-throughs. Not with the Geth, nor the code for the mining laser, nor collapsing chasm. Shepard always handled the situation with such a finesse it was almost supernatural. Then again, he thought, maybe things would change? Maybe they would get trapped under the rubble and die slowly while everyone presumed them dead.

The idea enticed Noah's mind. Not the dying slowly, but being trapped with Liara T'soni. Would she find him as intriguing as a dig site? Would he be able to speak coherent sentences and not make a fool of himself? Would they die together? And if they did, would they share an intimate moment before the clock ran out?

Possibilities played through his mind, biting his tongue and nipping at his brain. But then they stated to change, to warp into something else…the visions. They were trapped, talking, and when Liara turned to look at him here eyes were hollow holes filled with that reaper glow. She turned to muscle, then to bone and then to a veiny mass that twisted and bulged like a garden hose that's been stepped on.

Sovereign was born from that mass. He towered over Noah as he charged his main cannon. There was nothing Noah could do but call out for Shepard, for Liara, for anybody. No one came because not a noise escaped from his lungs. He opened his mouth but only husks crawled out. They slaughtered town, countries, Eden Prime…Kaidan and NIhlus.

Then the main cannon fired…and Noah woke up.

"Are you okay?" Noah looked around and saw that the room had been put back in order and an old desk had been brought up to replace the new. Tali was the only other soul in sight and she stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at Noah.

"Ye…yeah, just a…horrible nightmare."

"You looked uncomfortable, but I was afraid to wake you." Noah thought that over.

"You were watching me sleep?"

"No, no, of course not!" Tali rebutted. "I, I was, I just came in a few minutes ago. I was going to thank you, but you looked distress. I thought it would be best to let the dream play out…but I take it didn't have a happy ending?"

"To say the least."

"Well thanks, anyways, for saving me back there on the Citadel," Tali said, pacing around to Noah's side. "Who'd have thought that I'd be onboard an Alliance vessel all because some kid tried to intimidate an assassin." Noah felt both flattered and insulted by that.

"I just needed some time to work up my powers, I'm confined to a wheel chair, ya know?"

"Is that so, human?"

"Yeah, actually, it is." Tali chuckled at Noah's flared temper, which dispersed any hostility; it was a cute chuckle.

"Well, I was meaning to say that it was brave and sweet. I very much appreciate it." When she finished she quickly exited the room, Noah's 'no problem' trailing behind her.

The clock next to him told him the Normandy would be approaching Therum within the hour and with the promise of being stuck on the ship, Noah wished he could go back to sleep. But no eyes would willingly close after seeing what they had seen. He still got flashes of the beacon's message when his eyes were open…he cringed, sometimes jumped each time.

Luckily Chakwas came in brandishing a syringe and stated that physical therapy was about to begin. After she stuck him with it, Noah was able to clench his fists and move his arms like he could back on the Citadel. He felt calmer, more relaxed, but most of all, he felt like he was ready to learn how to walk.

**This chapter is simply meant to bridge the gap between the Citadel and the true Journey that awaits. Hopefully it suffices. I don't have a computer of my own so I'm reduced to using guerilla tactics; typing a few paragraphs on a roommates laptop, then typing another few at school then bringing it back to finish it on a friends laptop at midnight. I love it.**


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